Essence Longlasting Lipsticks Review & Swatches

Hi Lovelies,

I’m here today to review and swatch some of the Essence Longlasting Lipsticks that I recently added to my Makeup Collection.

Here are the colours that I got:

 

From Left to Right:

All You Need Is Red | Dare To Wear | Barely There | Natural Beauty | Colour Crush | Wear Berries | Cotton Candy

What Essence Say:

“The lipsticks provide your lips with intensive colour for several hours without drying them out. The light, creamy formula feels pleasant and covers your lips in a range of irresistible shades. You’re sure to find whatever you’re looking for – from bright pink to intensive red and chilled-out berry to subtle nude shades.” 

I love these lipsticks, the light and creamy formula makes them very easy and comfortable to wear during the day or night and they do last really well!!

Even removing the swatches on my arm, it was hard haha!!

The variety of colours are lovely.

They have a slightly sweet smell.

Moisturising when applied and don’t dry my lips out during the day.

The packaging is sleek and has a colour band indicator which is great when storing your lipsticks.

I love the embossed logo on the lipstick as well

Made in Italy.

3.8g

Here are the swatches on my lips:

All You Need Is Red

Dare To Wear

Barely There

Natural Beauty

Colour Crush

Wear Berries

 Cotton Candy

 I would love to know your thoughts on these lipsticks if you’ve tried them out as well!!

Have a great day!!

xx

Foundation for dry/ combination skin

Which foundations do I recommend for dry/ combination skin?
Like many of you, I have dry patches on my skin, even though generally my skin is well hydrated and healthy. My skin type is normal/ dry or dry/ combination.
I have tried and tested many foundations over the years. Lots of dodgy formulas and wasted foundations left me feeling a bit of a face failure.
Here’s what I found out on my journey from face fail to holy grail.

Liquid foundations are fine but you need to search for what works for you.
With so many multitaskers out there I often find that they have so many features they compromise on coverage or hydration.
SPF in foundation is my pet hate.
Most liquid foundations with SPF contain Titanium Dioxide which I talk about a lot. I hate it.
It works as an SPF by reflecting UV rays off your skin. Great!
It also reflects natural light off your skin, giving a more natural skin finish. Even better!
Here comes the big BUT… it also reflects camera flashlight.
Why do pro MUA still use liquid foundations then? Pro photographers flash the light onto a flat surface and what illuminates the face is the reflected light.
Point and shoot camera flash reflects off your face giving you a whiter ghostface look.
Now I’ve had my SPF rant, we’ll move on with foundation for dry skin.
If you have dry skin, many of the mattifying ingredients in liquid foundations will highlight dry spots and can dry your skin further.
Best non-drying liquid foundations: Guerlain Parure Gold (high end), Bourjois Healthy Mix foundation (high street), Maybelline Pure Liquid Mineral foundation (high street).

Gel-based foundation
These have less mattifying properties and often have less or no Titanium Dioxide. They are better for dry skin as they don’t take moisture from the skin and don’t dry it out.
They do tend to be more sheer. They are buildable to medium and heavy cover but your skin will feel heavier.
Once the gel has dried and set, it is longer lasting than liquid foundation.

Best gel foundations: YSL Le Teint Touche Eclat foundation (high end), Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum (high street).

 

Stick foundations are suitable and indeed good on dry/ combination skin (not great on oily skin). They give full coverage and are creamy in texture so are very blendable. They do suffer a bit from melting in heat, and so setting with powder is a must. Fixing spray is also advisable.

Best stick foundations for dry/ combo skin:
Bobbi Brown (high-end/ mid-range), Max Factor Pan Stik (high street)

Mousse foundations are also good for dry skin. They give better coverage than gel-based formulae and hold up better in heat (where stick foundations melt a little and slide off the face). They are blendable and are best applied with fingers or foundation wedge/ sponge. Once dry, it will last most, if not all of the day.
Best mousse foundations: Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse (high street). I must admit I haven’t tried any of the high end mousse foundations but they are available from Suqqu and Shu Emura. Other brands are available but I haven’t come across them yet.

Let me know your experiences with any of these foundations. Also let me know your skin type so it puts your comments in context.
Any questions? Post below. Thanks!

Nimbus Nail Art Tutorial

 

Hello everybody, today i'm gonna do a Nimbus nail art with a little help off the nailasaurus.

All you need for this nail art is:

Cotton Buds

Acetone - You can get acetone from most beauty supply stores and most pharmacies. I did try this with nail polish remover but it wasn't as effective. You can also use polish thinner, but that could get pricey as you need to use a fair amount.

A white nail polish for your base

A selection of 3-4 colours - I'm using Barry M Plum, Prickly  Pear and Bright Purple and H+M Midnight Mystery

Top coat

Start by painting all of your nails white, or another very light shade and letting it dry. Using a light base will make the colours much more vibrant when you add them over the top.

This is the important part! Lay out some nail polish on a sheet of plastic or foil and pour out some acetone. If you don't have a suitable container, just use the lid of the bottle.

Touch a cotton bud to the surface of the acetone and let it soak up in to the cotton.

Start thinning out the polish using the acetone soaked cotton bud by working it in a circular motion.

Test the consistency by blotting the cotton bud on to the plastic. You want it to be watery but still pigmented.

When you're happy with the consistency, blot the cotton bud randomly on to your nail. I like to start with the darkest colour and work my way towards the lightest.

Pick up a fresh cotton bud and repeat with your second colour.

And the third! If you want to get the colour right up to the edges of your nails, it will start pooling in your cuticles. Don't worry about it too much yet, it can easily be cleaned up when you're done.

Blot on a layer of your lightest colour to blend everything together nicely.

Because the layers of colour are so thin, you can keep adding colours until you're happy. Just make sure you give it time to dry in between colours otherwise the acetone can start removing the layers underneath.

Once you're finished, add a top coat and wait for everything to dry. Clean up around the edges using a clean-up brush  and you're done!

A few tips

- Your cotton bud should be saturated with acetone, but not dripping with it!

- If at any point your cotton bud starts deteriorating - stray fibres etc - just pick up a new one.

- If any little bits of cotton do get on to your nail, you can remove them with a pair of tweezers.

Halloween Nail Art

HALLOWEEN PATCHWORK NAIL ART TUTORIAL

Here's a tutorial for yesterday's Halloween themed nail art. I mentioned that I freehanded the design but this time around I created the tutorial using scotch tape as I know straight lines can be hard to master with a brush.

You'll need:

Orange Nail Polish - Essie Fear and Desire

Purple Nail Polish - Models Own Pukka Purple

Green Nail Polish - Sally Hansen Grass Slipper

Black acrylic paint or nail polish

Scotch Tape

A nail art brush

Top coat - preferably fast drying

Start by painting on your base colour and topping it with a thin layer of your top coat. Wait 5-10 minutes, or until the polish is completely dry before moving on.

Place two strips of tape on your nail to mark off your first patch - it can be absolutely any shape but I've gone with a triangle.

Paint on your first colour and immediately remove the tape.

Add another thin top coat to make it dry quickly.

Once it's dry, section off your next patch using tape. This time I've gone for a strip straight across my nail.

Just like last time, paint straight over the tape and immediately remove the tape.

Now you've got your patches! If you're a whizz with a nail art brush, you could get to this point without using tape.

For the stitching detail, take a nail art brush and first, outline the patches.

Next, paint on the stitches.

To finish up use a top coat or two and then clean up any mess around your cuticles using a clean-up brush dipped in pure acetone.

And you're done!

Love you Guys! x